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The MECE Muse Unplugged pop-up podcast is a variety show where I get a chance to connect with all types of people and do interviews, storytelling, and provide career advice for any newbie consultant or aspiring consultants and help them along their journey to greatness. What’s interesting is that the podcast was inspired by my upcoming book. I am right now in the throes of finishing the publishing process for my book. The book is called The MECE Muse: 100+ Selected Practices, Unwritten Rules, and Habits of Great Consultants.

What does the word MECE mean? A lot of people ask that question and with good reason. MECE is essentially an acronym and it stands for Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive. It is really a term that is used in consulting. It’s a consulting lingo we use as we go into projects just to make sure that as our clients hire us, they want us to help them take their business to the next level. We got to make sure that we are getting and identifying the root causes of some of the problems that they’re having instead of the symptoms. We use MECE as one of many other techniques to do that.

I really wanted to make sure that the conversation that we bring on the show is really balanced. I used the word balance because I hear a lot of people and I know for me, when I was first thinking about coming into consulting, you see the glamorous side of it. I really wanted to provide a balanced perspective. I wanted to show the great sides of consulting, but also show the downsides and show the underbelly of some of the challenges that a consultant experiences. I wanted to do that in a way that really stays away from labels. One thing with consultants, many still thinks they work at prestigious firms doing really important work out in the business, having really important conversations with executives. I didn’t want it to be that, “This is a show just for this type of consultant or only consultants that work at this firm.” I didn’t want any of that.

Purposefully, I want to make sure, we don’t mention labels, we don’t mention firm names, client names. Even our guest, I only mention their first name because I feel like that distracts sometimes from the conversation. I really wanted it to be about the journey of greatness of all consultants. I really want new or aspiring consultants to really be heard, to be supported and to be successful in any endeavor, any way that they want to use and leverage their profession. I believe that every consultant have a right to do so. It doesn’t matter what firm you work for, it doesn’t matter who you are as a specific individual, I really believe that consultants carry the burden of the business world on their shoulders. I think we deserve to have this type of dialogue and transparency in order to advance our profession as a whole.

MECE Mentoring Moment: There should be a transparency among our community and one that includes every one of all types of consultants.

I remember when I first grew up in consulting, there was the have and have nots. Whether that was real or perceived, that was how it came off to me as a new consultant, is that if you fit this specific profile, whatever that meant, fill in the blanks, then you are privy to certain information versus those that were not. I really want to dispel that. That type of undercurrent that’s sometimes is in our profession. I understand that there is a mistake to consulting and that mistake always be there just because of the sheer nature of the type of work we do and the lifestyle we lead. However, there should be a transparency among our community and one that includes everyone of all types of consultants, regardless of the clients or the firms that they work at.

How long the show will be around, I call it a pop-up podcast, meaning “as of right now”. I don’t have plans for the show to be long-term. The way I’ve been doing this show is really with my gut. As long as I continue learning and hearing from my go-getters, I keep getting questions, I keep getting suggestions and I keep feeling the love from everyone, I’ll continue to stick around. To me, that’s all I need is to make sure that people are out there. They’re using the information, they’re passing it along to others that need it and we’re all helping each other on our respective journey to greatness. That’s what this is all about. I don’t know how long that will be, but until then, I hope you continue to enjoy the show.